The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on Friday in no uncertain terms told the mobile operators that the BlackBerry services has to have lawful interception as required by the security agencies.

In a meeting with the mobile operators the DoT has told the service providers to come up with a time frame by when they will be able to implement this service after discussions with the Canadian firm Research in Motion, which has developed the BlackBerry services. The DoT has also asked the service providers to submit a report on the global practices regarding the lawful interception of BlackBerry services by Tuesday.

The Cellular Operators Association of India had to submit a report on the global practices regarding the lawful interception of the BlackBerry services by second week march but failed to do so. The DoT had earlier asked the service operators providing the BlackBerry services in the country to come up with solutions to the lawful interception, since intelligence agencies had reported the use of the BlackBerry services by some terrorist organisations in the country.

Stating that the government was keen that the blackberry services continue in the country, minister of Communication and IT, Andimuthu Raja on Friday said, ?Discussions with the concerned stakeholders are ongoing and we should soon resolve the issue.?

Developed and marketed worldwide by RIM, the BlackBerry service gives users access to e-mail through push technology on their mobile phones. Currently Bhart Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Communication offer the BlackBerry service. Industry sources say that earlier no such prior approval from the home ministry was required.

However mobile operators acknowledging the issue say that since the communication on a blackberry passes through a mobile network only and is simply reformatted due to the server not being in the country, one can possibly intercept it through the mobile network.

The DoT officials and the technical teams of the top four mobile service providers met on Friday evening to discuss the issues pertaining to the security concerns. As first reported by FE, the matter came to light recently when Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) application for starting the BlackBerry services in India was rejected.